Check retainer



July 1-6, 1946. D. E 2,404,043 7 'CHECK RETAINER Filed Aug. 20, 1943lllllll llll Ill INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented July 16, 1946 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE j 2,404,043

I CHECK RETAINER June D. Dilley,- Huntington, W. Va., assignor toAmerican Car and Foundry Company, New York. N. Y., a corporation of Newersey Application August 20, 1943, Serial No. 499,375 p Claims.((1232- 1) This invention relates tocheck retainers in general and inparticular to such retainers for use on mine cars which are dumped byrotating through a full 360 degrees.

The bulk of the coal and minerals mined is produced on a tonnage basis,that is, men are paid for the amount of coal or minerals which theypersonally load in the cars. At the dumping station the cars are weighedand then dumped with each man being credited with the proper weight.With such a system not only is the miner credited with the-amount ofmaterial loaded but the mine operators can keep exact check on theremoval of material from the various sections of their mines. Normally,the miners fasten a removable check or other identifying means onto thecar, which check is removed by the weighman at the dumping station.Since most of the checks can be readily removed, considerable dishonestyhas sprung up, among the miners by the switching of identifying tags orchecks and even the removal and substitution of the checks. The removaland substitution or switching of checks not only cheats the proper Iminer out of his just pay but prevents the mine operator from checkingexactly the output from various sections of his mine. It is an object,therefore, of the presentinventionto provide a check retainer which canbe rigidly attached to the car and from which a check once insertedcannot be removed except upon rotation-of the car through a full 360degrees.

A further object of theinvention is the provision of a check retainer soconstructed that the check or other identifying means must move along a.predetermined labyrinth path before it can be removed from the retainer.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a checkretainer of the labyrinth path type which may be constructed of simplepressings or stampings securely fastened together to form a unit.

These and other object of the invention will be apparent to personsskilled in the art from a study of the following description andaccompanying drawing, in which Fig. l is a perspective view of theretainer with parts broken away to better disclose the construction;

Fig. 2 is an elevational View of the check controller portion of theretainer;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the controller;

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are sectional views taken substantially on lines 4-4,55 and 6-6 respectivelyofFig.2; 7

Fig. 7 is a sectional View taken substantially on line 1-1 of Figs. 1and 2;

Figs. 8, 9, 10 and 11 are elevational views of the check retainer anddisclosing the path of movement of the check through the retainer, eachfigure being progressively rotated degrees from the preceding figure.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, it will be seen that the checkretainer as illustrated is made up of a casing A within which is a checkcontroller B and which controls the movement of check C. As clearlyshown, the check controller portion B is made up of three parts, two ofwhich are exact duplicates in order to reduce the cost of fabrication.Each of the duplicate stampings or pressings is formed from a flat sheetof metal 2 having its side edges provided with full depth marginalflanges 4 as best shown in Figs. 4 and 5. One of the remaining sideedges is formed with a full depth flange 6 extending substantiallyone-half the width of the plate 2 and the remaining half being notchedas at 8 leaving substantially half of a flange 9 extending upwardly fromthe plate, all as clearly disclosed inFigs. 3, 6 and 7. The other orremaining side isflanged to provide a full depth flange portion lflextending along substantially half the plate opposite the full depthflange 6, while the remaining half of the flange has the inner portionremoved as at l2to provide a tongue M of substantially half the flangeddepth and located opposite the out out portion 8 of the opposite flange.Each of the plate portions is notched as at I6 and at a point adjacentto the inner end of the cut out portion l2 but slightly beyond thecenter of the plate from such cut out portion. The third part of thecheck controller is also preferably formed as a stamping from a flatsheet 20, having one side flanged as at 22 and one end flanged in thesame direction as at 24. The other end of the plate is flanged in theopposite direction as at 26 and each of the flanges 22, 24 and 26 are ofa depth substantially equal to half the depth of the flanges 4 of thepressings or stampings previously described. The side of plate 20opposite from flange 22 is cut to provide tabs 28 and 30 bent inopposite directions from the plane of plate 20, thus forming inclinedportions which in the assembled condition will incline toward the plateportion 2 to which they are attached.

Inassembling the check controller the inner orpartition stamping isplaced within one of the duplicate stampings so that flange 24 islocated adjacent tongue I4, while flange 26 is located ad ia'cent flangeQ, with the flange 22 being located adjacent the flange 4 on that sideof the stamping which is adjacent the cut out portions 8 and I2. In thisposition the tongue 28 extends through the slot 6 in plate 2 and its endmay be crimped over to a position substantially parallel with plate 2,thereby holding the parts in a temporary assembled position. The otherduplicate stamping may now be rotated through 180 degrees and assembledon the other duplicate stamping and the partition member in such amanner that flange 9 is adjacent tongue M, and flange 6 is adjacentflange it). At eachside of the unit the flanges 6 and 9 of each pressingwill be exterior of the flange Ii] and tongue Id. of the other pressing.The full depth flanges will be disposed in alternating relationship sothat the duplicate pressings will fit together exactly and as clearlyshown in the figures. During the assembly of the last mentioned tampingor pressing the tongue 39 will be projected through the slit l6 and itsend bent or crimped over parallel to plate 2, thus holding the duplicatestampings in a preliminary assembled condition.

The casing previously ref-erred to is formed with a base plate 3% towhich may be attached flanges 38 of a box-shaped pressing having anouter side to. The upper portion of this box-like part is left solid,while the lower portion is provided with a window or opening 42. Asclearly shown in Figs. 1 and 7, the metal adjacent the upper edge ofwindow 42 is flanged inwardly to provide a short flange Mi adapted toretain the controller unit in position. This flang is of a length notexceeding the length of the sl'iort flange 9 or tongue M of thecontroller unit. clearly shown, the base plate 36 is pierced to receiverivets Mi by mean of which the entire retainer may be attached to theproper car end wall 38. Also as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 7, theupper flange 33 of the casing unit is notched to provide slot which willregister with the openings 3 and ii. of the controller unit. Inassemblin the entire retainer it is only necessary to assemble thecontroller unit as previously described, after which it may be droppedas a unit into the upper part of the box-like casing member and thecasing welded or otherwise attached to the base plate. The base plateand casing, together with its flanges and flange M, will -hold the checkcontroller unit in position in the upper part of the casing.

In some cases it may be advantageous to eliminate the check controlleras a unit and in such cases the inner or partition stamping may havecertain of its flanges, such as 22, 2 2, as well as tab 35, attached tothe base plate 36. In such cases the flange M of the casing would beformed so as to provide a full width partition extending completelybetween the flanges 38 of the casing and of a form similar to the flange6 of the duplicate pressings previously described and so positioned thatthe cut out portion 8 would be located adjacent the base plate 36 andbelow or inwardly of the slot 5d. In this manner the duplicate stampingscould be eliminated.

Assuming the retainer to have been assembled in either manner described,its operation will be as follows: The check C having been dropped intothe retainer through slot 50 willassume a position resting on flange 24of the partition stamping and adjacent an opening or passage provided bythe tongue 23 being deflected toward the base plate as clearly shown inFig. 5. As the car starts to dump and has moved through 90 degrees theretainer will be in the position shown in Fig. 8

and the check C will have moved past tongue 28 and will be resting onthe flange l of the controller unit. Continued rotation through another90 degrees will cause the check to roll along flange A to the positionshown in Fig. 9. A further rotation of 90 degrees will cause check C toenter the passage provided by tongue 3!! being deflected away from thebase plate and the check will then be in the position shown in Fig. 10wherein it rests upon flange 4 of the controller unit. Rotation of thecar through the final 90 degrees to an upright position shown in Fig. 11will cause the check C to drop through the lower slot of the controllerunit and into the lower portion of the casing where it may be reachedthrough window 42. The same sequence of operations will occur in casethe partition stamping is attached to the base plate and the duplicatestampings eliminated but with the flange M formed as the flanges 6 and9.

It will thus be seen that the check C must follow a labyrinth paththrough the controller be-. 'fore it can be discharged into the lowerpart of the casing where it is accessible through window 12. In otherwords, once a miner has dropped a check into the retainer it cannot beremoved until the car has been rotated through a full 360 degrees. Sucha rotation will, of course, be impossible except with special equipmentand accordingly other miners cannot substitute checks and the miners andoperators will be fully protected.

While the construction'has been described more or less in detail, itwill be obvious that modifications other than those shown and describedmay be made and all such modifications are contemplated as will fallwithin the scope of the appended claims defining my invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A check retainer comprising, a casing including inner and outer wallsadapted to be secured to a supporting structure, said casing beingformed with a window in the lower portion and a slot in the upperportion thereof, and a partition member housed by said casing pro--viding a labyrinth path connecting said slot and window, said partitionmember being formed by a plate portion located substantiall midwaybetween the inner and outer walls of the casing and held in place by alower tab inclined toward and fixed to the inner wall and by an uppertab inclined toward and fixed to the outer wall said tabs formingdeflectors for the coin during its movement in said path.

2. A check retainer comprising, a casing adapted to be secured to asupporting structure, an entrance opening into said casing through whicha check may be inserted, an exit opening through which a check may beremoved, and means in said casing providing a labyrinth path adjoiningsaid openings for gravity passage of a check from the entrance to theexit opening during approximately 360 degree rotation of the supportingstructure, said means being constructed as a self-contained unit locatedin said casing between the entrance opening and the exit opening andconsisting of a partition member and duplicate pan-shaped pressingsassembled with the flanges of the pan shaped pressings overlapping andjoined together by inclined tabs of the partition member.

3. A check retainer comprising, a casing adap ed to be secured to asupporting structure and having an entrance opening into said casingthrough which a check may be inserted and an exit opening through whicha check may be removed, and a controller unit mounted in said casingbetween the entrance and exit openings, said controller unit includingduplicate panshaped members with side flanges arranged in overlappingrelationship and certain of the flanges being formed with openingsadapted to register with said entrance and exit openings, and arelatively short partition member formed with flanges and inclined tabsholding said partition member substantially midway between saidpanshaped members to form a labyrinth path for the gravity passage of acheck from the entrance to the exit opening during predeterminedmovement of the supporting structure.

4. A check retainer comprising, a casing adapted to be secured to asupporting structure and having an entrance opening into said casingthrough which a check may be inserted and an exit opening through whicha check may be removed, and a controller unit mounted in said casingbetween the entrance and exit openings, said controller unit includingpan-shaped members having their side flanges directed toward each otherwith certain of the flanges formed with openings adapted to communicatewith said entrance and exit openings, and a partition member extendingmidway between the nested panshaped members to provide spaced channelscommunicating with the entrance and exit openings 6 of said unit, saidpartition terminating medially of the unit and having bent tabs fixed tothe opposite walls of the unit and forming guides for the check duringits movement through the passageways.

5. A check retainer comprising, a casing adapted to be secured to asupporting structure and having an entrance opening into said casingthrough which a check may b inserted and an exit opening through which acheck may be re moved, and a controller unit mounted in said casingbetween the entrance and exit openings, said controller unit includingduplicate panshaped members with side flanges arranged in overlappingrelationship and certain of the flanges being formed with openingsadapted to register with said entrance and exit openings, and arelatively short partition member formed with flanges and inclined tabsholding said partition member substantially midway between saidpan-shaped members to form spaced oppositely extending passageways forthe gravity passage of a check, said tabs being reversely bent to definepartial side walls for each of the oppositely extending passages anddeflecting surfaces for the check in its movement through the mainchamber of the unit.

JUNE D. DILLEY.

